Windows XP has basically served all my computing needs. With support for it going way in the near future, I decided to try Linux at the beginning of this year ..... mostly out of curiosity, the leaning experience, and to try and avoid the cost of a Windows upgrade. After trying various Linux versions and DE's, I've settled on LMDE/XFCE. I use Linux now for most of my computing needs but still need to revert to Windows some music things that I do.

As an experiment recently, I decided to take advantage of Microsoft's current Windows 8 price and upgrade my Windows XP partition. I have to say that the upgrade was successful and went without issue. My LMDE partition is totally intact and dual booting works fine. The Grub menu listed the Windows partition as XP after the upgrade, but a forum member gave me the simple fix and now it's listed as Windows 8. So for those who have been considering the upgrade, it can be done rather painlessly.

Here are my initial thoughts on Windows 8 after a couple of days of use:

1) The Metro interface is useless IMO, especially on a single monitor system. I have a two monitor setup and although I can keep it open and get info from the "live tiles", I really haven't done it that much.

2) Some of the native apps .... like mail ..... are terrible. I don't like the fact that they open up in full screen mode only. The fact that I can't set up a pop3 mail account is ridiculous.

3) It doesn't take that long to learn how to get around the interface, especially if you've done a little research before upgrading. Lot's of YT vids out there.

Generally speaking, I like it compared to XP, however, if I was a Windows 7 user, I probably wouldn't have bothered. In the end, my preference is still Linux for it's simplicity, speed, and ease of use. For the odd time that I have to switch to Windows, 8 is not so bad. I'm not unhappy I upgraded.

I just think all these mobile style interface types are too touchy-feely to be of much use for applications, other than simple browsing or finger twitching/painting--I notice smart phones now seem to offer a signature verification for a credit/debit card or processed payment with a finger: that can't be too much of a sugnative, certainly nothing there for signature comparision..

Touch screen technology really stink for larger sized interfaces: although they are OK for broadcaster, weather reports, except of cource they aren't panning around for hours at a time on the big board (screen)

Thanks for your thoughts Fajah. I've read other 'not so glowing' reports about Win 8. I'm sure I'll upgrade within the $39.99 window just to familiarize myself for future troubleshooting jobs but with some trepidation.Thanks again.

Chipshotz wrote:Thanks for your thoughts Fajah. I've read other 'not so glowing' reports about Win 8. I'm sure I'll upgrade within the $39.99 window just to familiarize myself for future troubleshooting jobs but with some trepidation.Thanks again.

Chipshotz wrote:Thanks for your thoughts Fajah. I've read other 'not so glowing' reports about Win 8. I'm sure I'll upgrade within the $39.99 window just to familiarize myself for future troubleshooting jobs but with some trepidation.Thanks again.